Get with the programmers
The creators of the intriguing dynamic-tracking effect plugin, Texture, tell us how it came together
We gather you guys have form? Tell us about Devious Machines’ history. Jim “Dom and I were introduced a couple of years ago – we only lived five minutes walk from each other. A year, later Devious Machines was born. We both have studios in our basements in Guildford. Dom has an electronic music act, Neurodriver, and was doing a lot of sound design for video games. I made the Big Kick and StereoSavage plugins, and before that was doing trance production with releases on Armada and Nukleuz.”
Explain the concept behind Texture… Dom “Texture was inspired by a production trick that I use a lot when producing records, which is to layer gated and filtered white noise into my programmed drum tracks, to act as a kind of ‘glue’. But Texture takes this concept much further, as it adds a wealth of different sound sources, and by using an envelope follower instead of a gate, you get much more control over the dynamics of the sound that’s produced. “The upshot is that Texture is useful in all sorts of situations, where you might have otherwise used sample layering, but makes the process much easier and faster. It’s probably most useful on drums and percussion, where, for example, you can use it to enhance or shape transients, add artificial reverb-like tails, create bass rumble, or like I mentioned, create a common element to ‘glue’ together your programmed samples.” Jim “It’s also great for adding ’dirt’, such as vinyl crackle, hum, or electronic noise to clean parts. You can create risers and booms for pop and dance. Or, if you’re doing sound work, you can very quickly add gravel crunch or water splash to footsteps. One of our customers told us he’d finished off his dinosaur roar with Texture’s fire sound. I never thought we’d be helping make dinosaur sounds when we started. “We’re sure there are tons of uses we’ve not thought of yet, too!”
“We’re sure there are tons of uses we’ve not thought of yet”
For a debut release, Texture is remarkably polished. What challenges did you face in developing it to such a high standard? Dom “We put a lot of effort into making the user interface slick and easy to use. Getting the sound tech right was also a challenge: there’s a full granular synthesis engine under the hood, which went through a couple of iterations, and we also spent a lot of time getting the response of the envelope follower right.”
Texture draws on a huge range of sound sources. Any favourites? Dom “The sample content was a lot of work. I’ve amassed quite a collection of recordings during my years as a sound designer, which came in handy, but we still did a lot of recording especially for the product. We had some help from our friends too: I need to say a big thanks to Rich at Cortex Audio, who designed and recorded a lot of the content, Chris Nugent for the loan of his cymbals, and to Natalia and Jay for their vocals.”
What’s next for Devious Machines? Jim “Right now, we’re working on a free update to Texture, which will allow users to use their own samples as texture sources, as this has been a popular request. We also have several more plugins in the pipeline.”
deviousmachines.com